Aglophobia (Kaalia Toolbox EDH)

Commander / EDH Angels Demons Dragons RBW (Mardu)

chilbi

Mana (27)

• 1x Battlefield Forge
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Boros Signet
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Clifftop Retreat
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Fetid Heath
• 1x Flagstones of Trokair
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 3x Plains
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Rugged Prairie
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Sol Ring
• 3x Swamp

Beats (6)

• 1x Akroma, Angel of Wrath
• 1x Archfiend of Despair
• 1x Bloodletter of Aclazotz
• 1x Drakuseth, Maw of Flames
• 1x Sower of Discord
• 1x Utvara Hellkite

Utility (5)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Quicksilver Amulet
• 1x Spinerock Knoll
• 1x Strionic Resonator
• 1x Windbrisk Heights

Reanimation (3)

• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1x Reya Dawnbringer
• 1x Whip of Erebos

Removal (13)

• 1x Angel of Serenity
• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Balefire Dragon
• 1x Damn
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Hellkite Tyrant
• 1x Malfegor
• 1x Pestilence Demon
• 1x Reaper from the Abyss
• 1x Return to Dust
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Vindicate
• 1x Wrath of God

Carddraw (10)

• 1x Hoarder's Greed
• 1x Lord of the Void
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Pain's Reward
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Sunforger
• 1x Temple of Malice
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Temple of Triumph
• 1x Treacherous Blessing

Haste (6)

• 1x Dragon Tempest
• 1x Hall of the Bandit Lord
• 1x Hanweir Battlements  ^Meld
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Slayers' Stronghold
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots

Disruption (4)

• 1x Angelic Arbiter
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Sire Of Insanity
• 1x Yosei, the Morning Star

Charge! (2)

• 1x Scourge of the Throne
• 1x Waves of Aggression

Commander (1)

Protection (12)

• 1x Angelic Renewal
• 1x Avacyn, Angel of Hope
• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Deflecting Swat
• 1x Eiganjo Castle
• 1x Ghostway
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Legion's Initiative
• 1x Sephara, Sky's Blade
• 1x Shining Shoal
• 1x Teferi's Protection
• 1x Wild Ricochet

Defense (8)

• 1x Baneslayer Angel
• 1x Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
• 1x Kher Keep
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x Master Warcraft
• 1x No Mercy
• 1x Sudden Spoiling
• 1x Vault of the Archangel

Other (3)

• 1x Tainted Field
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

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Maybeboard

Other (18)

• 1x Axgard Armory
• 1x Bedevil
• 1x Blinding Angel
• 1x Declaration in Stone
• 1x Fervor
• 1x Flamekin Village
• 1x Fork
• 1x Gift of Immortality
• 1x Mandate of Peace
• 1x Nomad Outpost
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Radiant Purge
• 1x Reverberate
• 1x Savai Triome
• 1x Scourge of Kher Ridges
• 1x Talisman of Conviction
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Unbreakable Formation

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Sssh! You hear that? They're coming!

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{W}{B}{R} Stuff to know {W}{B}{R}

Sooo, another generic Kaalia deck? Seriously?!?

Not at all my friend, this here is rather a finely tuned version that has it all: beatdown, interaction and an aweful load of fun attached to it.

Let's dive into it:

How to play

I'll be honest with you. This isn't exactly the most complicated deck to play. You'll basically want to have Kaalia out as soon as possible, starting an endless sequence of ever growing attacks. Giving your favorite demon-angel some haste helps a lot over here, so watch out for cards like Hall of the Bandit Lord or Lightning Greaves.

It might take some practice to find out about the right timing when to hold back and when to go for it though.

Once Kaalia hits the table you might just as well put your blinking red "deliver damage here" cap on. People just get jealous when they see big fat creatures around by turn three to five.

Therefore you should not simply rely on Kaalias power to win but rather analyse the exact situation. Can you protect her to attack often enough to gain you some value? Which player do you have to take out first? Do you have a backup plan for opposing counterattacks?

Psychology and mind games go a long way here.

The Toolbox

Since Kaalia is going to get us a lot of attention once she gets going, you need a plan on how to defend yourself or you might almost certainly get destroyed by the opposing alliance.

Also Kaalia herself will be assassinated quite often. Luckily, both white and red provide an array of useful tricks to dodge removal and prevent or even redict damage.

Though it might seem contradictory to put those defensive cards in here at first glance, once I tried them out I never looked back.

• Wild Ricochet and Deflecting Swat (the former Shunt) usually redict removalspells and even copy a card draw once in a while. Fork and/or Reverberate might be welcome additions as well, though I can't find cards to cut for them right now.

• Ghostway, Eerie Interlude, Master Warcraft and Teferi's Protection effectively funciton as time warps, sometimes stopping an upcoming alpha strike against you short or keeping the team alive after an opposing board sweeper. Boros Charm truly shines as an all star here since it can be used offensively as well.

You can even double the sweetness when you happen to get a Sunforger on the table. Suddenly an open {W}{R} represents all the mentionend effects above and thus turns figuring out what to do into a rather nightmarish task for opposing generals.

Complete List of Targets:

• Swords to Plowshares - best spot removal there is, period.
• Anguished Unmaking - most of the times Vindicate on steroids, when the lifeloss actually matters you probably are about to lose anyway
• Return to Dust - bread and butter removal, most of the times solving two problems at once
• Master Warcraft - opponents planning to unite against the team? Sorry, not this time...
• Boros Charm - see above, amazing in offense and defense
• Ghostway / Eerie Interlude - dodges removal and wrath effects, also provides vigilance for the team
• Teferi's Protection - the granddaddy of them all, see you next turn :)
• Wild Ricochet / Shunt - see above, value guaranteed

Shining Shoal is obviously not a very clever target to get with Sunforger but takes on an important role as "Force of Will"-effect, often saving Kaalia during her crucial first attack step.

Custom categories

To outline the inner structure of the deck I put everything into ten categories. However, most cards serve double purpose. Swiftfoot Boots enables a hasty attack of Kaalia while also protecting her. Deflecting Swat could be used not only for protection but also for redirecting an opposing carddraw to ourselves. Yosei, the Morning Star does not only disrupt our opponents, but also kills them if unanswered... - you get the idea. In the end I decided to put each card into the category that I think is most important for the deck's performance.

"Hey dude, why don't you play [XYZ]??"

Ok, so this section is here to explain why I don't run a few cards most Kaalia decks are.

a) Mass-Land-Destruction

Of course it is tempting to throw in some monsters via Kaalia, then blow all lands up and slowly grind your opponents to a frustrating death. Tempting, but utterly boring as well. The games I enjoy most are the ones where you don't really know who is going to make it in the end. Where advantage goes back and forth between players. Mass land destruction just isn't fun to me, even when it almost assures a win every time.

b) One-Hit-Kills / mean stuff

Pretty much the same here, all three are game-winning most of the times but I feel like they put me too much ahead for other players to compete. And competition - remind you - is a good thing since it makes games interesting.

While Rakdos just cuts people from half of their resources, Resolute Archangel basically doubles our life total. Even though this seems kinda week in comparism, it truly isn't when you command an army of dragons, demons and what not at the same time. And for Master of Cruelties, well, he just seems like he never understood what "fair play" is about. I'd bet the other demon-kids didn't let him join in back in the days...

c) "Demonic" Tutors & Tutors in general

Like mentioned with the mass land destruction above, I always felt like Commander is best at being a mildly-competitive format (Multiplayer-Commander that is, nothing against Duel-Commander here). Manipulating your draws will result in more consistency and therefore in the end in less epic topdeck stories and more repetitive interaction patterns. Thus I decided that tutoring is something I'll highly limit myself to, with Sunforger being the max in here.

d) Attacking twice per turn

Often suggested and pretty obvious inclusions on first sight, I've tested both for quite a long time and found them rather unimpressive. Aurelia is a little difficult to cast, her stats prevent her from being a decent Kaalia target and the vigilance rarely matters. Here Scourge of the Throne just seems way superior to me. Aggravated Assault gave room to Waves of Aggression, since it can be disenchanted, bounced, enchanted with Faith's Fetters and so on while Waves is actually just vulnerable to graveyard removal. Seems legit to me.

"Dude, that altered Kaalia..."

Now that you mention it, I'm using a personally 3d altered Kaalia to lead my troops here.

I always felt that Fallen Angel hat quite a lot in common with Kaalia flavorwise so i put her in the main spot and added one mighty dragon taken from the alternate art Seething Song.

In the end, I spiced up the background with a foil Quest for Pure Flame and added some asian rules text for style reasons.

Altogether there's a whooping 19 layers and around 5 hours of cursing involved, enjoy!

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Top Ranked	Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Angels 3 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Demons 3 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Dragons 2 years ago
Date added	10 years
Last updated	5 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	15 - 0 Mythic Rares 60 - 0 Rares 11 - 0 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.20
Tokens	Dragon 6/6 R, Kobolds of Kher Keep 0/1 R
Folders	EDH Mardu (RBW), Maybe Decks, RED DECKS, Decks I like, Commander, Kaalia, Commander, comander, Kaalia Decks, To Be Used as Primers